Hamelyn

Template:SkyrimNPCs Hamelyn is a mad Breton mage who lives underneath the Honningbrew Meadery outside Whiterun.

Description

Hamelyn is hostile on sight, and cannot be interacted with. He is the self-proclaimed leader of the skeevers beneath Whiterun. Commonly known as the "Skeever King" or "Rat King", Hamelyn lives with the creatures, which are not hostile toward him.

Background

Hamelyn spends his time in the tunnels connecting the Honningbrew Meadery to the Boilery. In the past, Hamelyn was an apprentice alchemist in the College of Winterhold, but his "irresponsibility" caused him to be kicked out of the institution, and he was even arrested in Whiterun due to his obsessive and dangerous experiments involving skeevers. Such experiments likely resulted in the Venomfang Skeevers found in his lair, and his background can be read in his journal, which can be looted off his body during the Thieves Guild quest Dampened Spirits.

Battle strategy

He wields potent spells which vary between fire, shock, and ice.

• To prevent taking large amounts of damage, the Ice Form shout can freeze him in place.
• Continually jumping from side to side allows the Dragonborn to dodge most of Hamelyn's spells.
• Hiding behind columns to wait for shouts to recharge or Magicka to regenerate can be helpful.
• Attacking him in close quarters with a magicka-draining weapon is also a good tactic, because he switches from magic attacks to bare fists.
• Archery/Sneak specialists may prefer to use arrows coated with Frenzy poison on Hamelyn, which will make his pet Skeevers attack him. It is entirely possible for the rats to kill him if there are enough of them.
• Mage types who specialize in Illusion may use the same tactic by using a Frenzy spell or scroll.
• If the player is a werewolf, transforming may be a good option; growling will cause him to enter a state of fear.
• One of the easiest methods to take Hamelyn down is to use Summon Arniel's Shade and keep well back to avoid any Chain Lightning attacks.
• If the Dragonborn has a high sneaking skill with the Assassin's Blade perk, Hamelyn can be sneaked up on and killed in one hit once his skeever friends are dispatched. He tends to spend a lot of time at his alchemy lab, making it easy to take him by surprise.

Interaction

File:Hamelyn will attack.jpg

Hamelyn will attack you!

Dampened Spirits

After completing the quest Loud and Clear, Brynjolf will say that Maven Black-Briar wishes to speak to the Dragonborn. She asks the Dragonborn to shut down a competitor, newly opened Honningbrew Meadery, and to find out how its owner Sabjorn has managed so quickly to fund its opening.

Trivia

• Hamelyn is a likely reference to The Ratman's Notebook, a story that inspired the 1971 movie Willard, a story of a social outcast who befriends and trains rats to exact revenge against his colleagues.  However, the name Hamelyn is an allusion to the Pied Piper of Hamelin who removed the town of Hamelin of its rats, but after not being paid, led the children away just like the rats he got rid of.
• Hamelyn is a potential candidate for Dead Thrall.
• Hamelyn may be a reference to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, in which a villain/anti-hero known as the Rat King made sporadic appearances.
• His experimentations on the Skeevers might explain why they are so big; the owner of The Winking Skeever says they weren't always as large, although there are Skeevers located all over Skyrim, and most likely Hamelyn wouldn't have been able to experiment on all of the Skeevers.
• His Editor ID is dunHonningbrewRatGuy, because of him experimenting with skeevers, which in previous games were rats.

Appearances

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim